Acton, Marion Jean Catherine [Jeanie] Adams- [formerly Jeanie Hering] (1846–1928), writer, was born Marion Hamilton on 21 June 1846, in Brodick, Isle of Arran, Scotland, the daughter of Edith Hamilton and an unidentified Scottish nobleman. Before the age of four she was adopted by ...
Article
Acton, Marion Jean Catherine [Jeanie] Adams- [formerly Jeanie Hering] (1846–1928), writer
Siobhan Peiffer
Article
Adam [née King], Ruth Augusta (1907–1977), writer and feminist
Sybil Oldfield
Adam [née King], Ruth Augusta (1907–1977), writer and feminist, was born on 14 December 1907 at the vicarage in Arnold, a mining parish in Nottinghamshire, the second of the four children of the Revd Rupert William King (1874–1955), a Church of England...
Article
Alcock [née Cumberland], Mary (1741?–1798), writer
Markman Ellis
Alcock [née Cumberland], Mary (1741
Article
Allfrey, Phyllis Byam Shand (1908–1986), author and politician
Elaine Campbell
Allfrey, Phyllis Byam Shand (1908–1986), author and politician, was born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, on 24 October 1908, the second daughter of Francis Byam Shand (b. 1879), a lawyer who had come to Dominica from England in the early 1900s, and ...
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![Cover Andrews, Dame Cicily Isabel [Rebecca West] (1892–1983)](/cover/searchableMedia/odnb-9780198614128-e-1003807-graphic-1-thumbnail.jpg)
Andrews, Dame Cicily Isabel [Rebecca West] (1892–1983)
Maker: Wyndham Lewis
In
Dame Cicily Isabel Andrews [Rebecca West] (1892–1983) by Wyndham Lewis, 1932 © Estate of Mrs G. A. Wyndham Lewis / National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Andrews [née Fairfield], Dame Cicily Isabel [pseud. Rebecca West] (1892–1983), writer, critic, and journalist
Bonnie Kime Scott
Andrews [née Fairfield], Dame Cicily Isabel [pseud. Rebecca West] (1892–1983), writer, critic, and journalist, was born on 21 December 1892 at 28 Burlington Road, Westbourne Park, London, the youngest of three children (all daughters) of Charles Fairfield (1843–1906) and his wife, ...
Article
Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911), author and founder of the Armitt Library, Ambleside
Eileen Jay
Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911), author and founder of the Armitt Library, Ambleside, was born at 19 Melbourne Terrace, Salford, Lancashire, on 24 September 1851. She was the youngest of three daughters of William Armitt (1815–1867), an impecunious assistant overseer who valued learning, and his wife, ...
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Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911)
Maker: Sophia Armitt
In
Mary Louisa Armitt (1851–1911) by Sophia Armitt The Armitt Trust Collection
Article
Atkinson [married name Calvert], (Caroline) Louisa Waring (1834–1872), writer and naturalist
Margaret Harris
Atkinson [married name Calvert], (Caroline) Louisa Waring (1834–1872), writer and naturalist, was born on 25 February 1834 at Oldbury, Sutton Forest, near Berrima, on the southern highlands of New South Wales, the third daughter and fourth child of Charlotte, née Waring (1796–1867)...
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Benson, Stella (1892–1933)
Maker: Cuthbert Julian Orde
In
Stella Benson (1892–1933) by Cuthbert Julian Orde, 1929 © Estate of C. J. Orde
Article
Benson [married name Anderson], Stella (1892–1933), writer
George Malcolm Johnson
Benson [married name Anderson], Stella (1892–1933), writer, was born at Lutwyche Hall, Wenlock Edge, Shropshire, on 6 January 1892, the younger daughter and third child of Ralph Beaumont Benson (1862–1911), landowner, of Lutwyche Hall, and his wife, Caroline Essex (1861–1934), second daughter of ...
Article
Berry, Mary (1763–1852), author
Charles Kent
revised by Pat Rogers
Berry, Mary (1763–1852), author, was born on 16 March 1763 at Stanwick, North Riding of Yorkshire, a hamlet south-west of Darlington. The birth of her sister and lifelong companion Agnes (1764–1852) followed just over a year later. According to one possibly unreliable account, their grandfather was a tailor in ...
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Berry, Mary (1763–1852)
Maker: Anne Seymour Damer
In
Mary Berry (1763–1852) by Anne Seymour Damer, 1793 private collection. Photograph: Photographic Survey, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Article
Betham, (Mary) Matilda (1776–1852), writer and miniature painter
Anne Gilchrist
revised by Geoffrey Carnall
Betham, (Mary) Matilda (1776–1852), writer and miniature painter, was baptized on 1 January 1777 at Haceby, Lincolnshire, the eldest of the fifteen children of the Revd William Betham (1749–1839) and his wife, Mary, née Damant (1752/3–1839), the former wife of Whittocke Planque. In a letter (1840) to ...
Article
Bloom, Ursula Harvey (1892–1984), writer
John D. Wright
Bloom, Ursula Harvey (1892–1984), writer, was born on 11 December 1892 in Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex, the only daughter of James Harvey Bloom, a Church of England clergyman, and Mary Gardner (d. c.1915), both from Norfolk families. Her mother, whom Ursula called ...
Article
Bonhôte [née Mapes], Elizabeth (1744–1818), writer
Christopher Reeve
Bonhôte [née Mapes], Elizabeth (1744–1818), writer, was born at Earsham Street, Bungay, Suffolk, and baptized on 11 April 1744 in St Mary's Church, Bungay, the elder of two surviving children of James Mapes (bap. 1714, d. 1794), baker and grocer of ...
Article
Bowdler, Henrietta Maria [Harriet] (1750–1830), writer and literary editor
M. Clare Loughlin-Chow
Bowdler, Henrietta Maria [Harriet] (1750–1830), writer and literary editor, was born in Conington, Huntingdonshire, the daughter of Thomas Bowdler (bap. 1719, d. 1785), and his wife, Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, née Cotton (d. 1797). She was one of six children, all of whom were raised in ...
Article
Briggs, Katharine Mary (1898–1980), writer and folklorist
Hilda Ellis Davidson
Briggs, Katharine Mary (1898–1980), writer and folklorist, was born on 8 November 1898 at 102 Fellows Road, Hampstead, eldest daughter of Ernest Edward Briggs (1866–1913) and his wife, Mary Cooper (1867–1956). Her father belonged to a wealthy Unitarian family in Yorkshire, engaged in mining, banking, and various industrial enterprises; he made an unconventional but happy marriage with a farmer's daughter. After a serious illness at sixteen he had given up a career in the family firm for the ...
